Bombay HC Directs Rapido To Shut Services Until 20th January In Maharashtra

The Bombay High Court (HC) has instructed online taxi aggregator Rapido to suspend its services in Maharashtra from 1 PM onwards, today (13th January) until Friday (20th January). The HC passed the above order on finding out that Rapido does not own a taxi aggregator licence in Maharashtra and thus operating illicitly in the state. 

The HC order was passed during a court hearing (petition) filed by Rapido revoking the Maharashtra government’s move to not grant taxi aggregator licences to online ride-hailing companies. 

During the hearing, Rapido agreed to abide by the court’s order and said it would discontinue two-wheeler passenger services, two-wheeler parcel services and auto services in Maharashtra by 1 PM, today (13th January). 

The state HC rebuked the Maharashtra government for not framing a policy for taxi aggregators and asked to offer a clarification for that. 

It is prudent to note that Rapido approached the state HC following the Maharashtra government and its transport body registered an FIR (on 24th November 2022) against its founder Aravind Sanka and legal advisor Shantanu Sharma for operating illegally and not paying apt taxes. 

Apart from Maharashtra, Rapido is facing troubles in Telangana as well. In December last year, Telangana Gig And Platform Workers’ Union (TGPWU) wrote to the state’s transport body seeking a ban on taxi services offered by ride-hailing aggregators. 

In the letter, TGPWU said that the taxi and bike aggregators including Uber, Ola and Rapido were operating illegally in the state. The above aggregators were providing private licenced vehicles as taxis, which is disallowed in the state. Owing to this, plenty of bikes were seized in various states affecting the bike owners than the ride-hailing companies.

Besides, last year, Rapido was also booked for a rape case of female passengers. Following the complaint, the police arrested the accused driver.   ‘

As a result, social media called out Rapido for its inefficient operations and also reported instances of using vehicles with different registration numbers than the ones shared in the app. 

Founded in 2015 by Rishikesh SR, Aravind Sanka, and Pavan Guntupalli, Rapido has presence in more than 100 Indian cities. It offers bike taxi and auto services and peer-to-peer delivery service for essentials. 

In 2021, it secured $52 Mn funding from Shell Ventures, Yamaha, CRED’s founder Kunal Shah, Spotify India’s CEO Amarjit Singh Batra, Positive Moves Consulting, Hero Group’s Pawan Munjal, WestBridge, Nexus Venture and Everblue Management.